The Gravity Keeper (10 page)

The bush Owen was hiding behind started to shake harder. Alysha and Simon grabbed him to make him stop trembling, but that only made their bushes rustle, too.

“There, do you see it, Sir? That's odd behavior for bushes, don't you think?”

“Odd behavior for bushes? You need to start using a less toxic hair gel.”
The hooded figure walked to Veenie and looked at the bushes.
“Stupid hood ruins my depth perception.”

With that, he pulled back the enormous hood. Shockingly, the hooded figure was really an un-hooded woman. A beautiful one with sharp green eyes and shoulder-length hair so brightly golden it almost shimmered.

“Much better,” the woman said. Without the hood, her voice was sweet and melodic. She squinted at the bushes. “Now let's see…” She pulled up one sleeve of her black coat and glanced at a series of different-colored squiggles and shapes that were tattooed along her arm. They clearly weren't normal, though. They were so vivid and almost three-dimensional that they seemed alive instead of just ink.

“Where did I put it?” she asked. “I tell you, Veenie, these tattoos are almost more trouble than they're worth. Forget the strain of bearing them; simply finding them is a horror.” She frowned as she twisted her arm to check by her elbow, then switched arms and scanned the squiggles there. “Aha, here we go.”

She stared at a vibrant yellow tattoo—a set of thick, sharp-pointed lines and small circles—that virtually pulsated on her shoulder. She spoke several bizarre words, but the process was nothing like the peanut buttery sound of the Orders' formulas: it sounded more like the woman was speaking while chewing glass. The tattoo glowed brightly for an instant, and the whole field of bushes' leaves crumbled into bitter-smelling ash. The woman winced but nodded in satisfaction.

I dropped my jaw in disbelief. I mean, it was still attached to my head, but my mouth fell open. Nobody, in the many, many centuries since the Knowledge Union first formed, had ever made a formula into a tattoo. Yet she had just enacted a Chemistry command from one. She had several more on both arms, and as each tattoo's color indicated, they were from several different Orders. I saw more yellow for Chemistry, as well as blue for Physics, green for Biology, and even silver for Astronomy.

The woman leaned forward and smiled at Simon, Alysha, and Owen huddling behind the bare bushes. “And who have we here?”

Mermon sputtered. “Outsiders? How? Dunkerhook Woods has safeguards!”

The no-longer-hooded woman glanced at Mermon. “I found a way around some of the Union's rules; why couldn't others? Though I am surprised that children managed it.”

She glanced at the kids and frowned. “Mermon, find out what they're doing here,” she said in a bored tone.

Mermon bent forward, lowering his beady eyes toward them. “You punks!” His growling voice became a low roar, and the kids cowered. “What are you doing here? Tell me before I tear you apart!”

The woman sighed. “Veenie, behave. They're not in boot camp. Step aside.” She frowned and snapped her fingers. “Hi, kids. So, explanation. Why are you here?” Her voice was gentler than Mermon's, but her tone was firm.

Alysha stood up from her crouched position and, I noticed, clenched her knees together to stop them from shaking. “Why are
we
here? Just who do you two think you are? We came in here to have some privacy, thank you very much. Why don't you and Señor Growl Face get lost before we tell the police that two strangers came after us in the woods!”

The woman chuckled. “I doubt anyone would understand what you meant if you mentioned these woods.” She gestured around her. “You shouldn't even know they're here.” She paused. “You are right about one thing—there's no need to be strangers. Why don't your friends join the conversation?”

Simon tugged at Owen's sleeve, and they both stood up next to Alysha; the Book was safely hidden in Simon's backpack.

“'Bout time; ever hear of chivalry?” Alysha muttered.

The woman tossed back her beautiful hair and smiled, but it was a cold smile; she looked as friendly as a crocodile before it took a nibble. “Now, as I was saying, let's be friends. My name is Sirabetta, but you can call me Sir if you want. All my friends do; I insist upon it. My associate, Mermon Veenie, and I are looking for a big blue book. It would bore you with all its dull science information, but it's very important to us. Have you seen it?”

“Look, See-ruh-whatever,” Alysha said, “I don't know what you know about kids, but on weekends, we try to get away from books and school. I mean, reading on a Saturday? Please!”

Simon and Owen glanced at Alysha, impressed by her display of attitude.

Sirabetta frowned; she didn't seem as impressed. “Our Book. You. Seen it?”

Alysha rolled her eyes while Simon and Owen just shook their heads. “If you're not going to leave, we will,” she said. “We have better things to do, right, boys?” Without waiting for an answer, Alysha put a hand on each boy's shoulder and turned them away.

“Good,” Mermon growled, loud enough for the kids to hear. “Let's get them out of here so we can keep searching.”

“Fool,” Sirabetta hissed. “Did you ever think that they might be lying?”

“Sir…why would children want it?” Mermon asked. “It looks like a schoolbook, and they wouldn't be able to even open it.”

“Why?” Sirabetta shouted. “Who knows? But
that
one has a backpack which is the
perfect
size to hold the Book. Furthermore, they weren't surprised by those leaves miraculously disappearing.” She arched an eyebrow. “Either they've been around some very rare foliage, or they know something. Veenie, show them what happens if I get upset.”

Mermon nodded and spoke a formula. He held his hands in front of him, and they gave off a bright blue-and-white glow. There was a loud humming like a guitar amplifier being switched on, and then a thick, blue-white bolt of lightning roared out of his fingertips.

The kids jumped as the lightning streaked past them, splitting the air with a terrible roar of thunder before shattering the trunk of a small tree.

Sirabetta smiled coldly as the kids huddled together. “That was a warning shot. Now. One more time. Are you going to tell me what you know, or does Veenie make you extra-crispy?”

Simon, Owen, and Alysha stared at the shards of wood that had flown from the ruined, smoking tree trunk.

The silence was broken by Alysha, who cleared her throat loudly. “Okay, we're sorry, please hold on!” she said politely. She held up her hands above her head. “Simon, friction!” she hissed.

Simon faked a cough. “But we'll have to get to the trail first,” he muttered, with his hands covering his mouth.

He forced himself to calm down and think. He'd read countless books about heroes facing terrible danger. They always made it seem so easy, like the answers just dropped from the sky—

His eyes widened. “I've got it; just get ready to do what I do,” he whispered urgently.

Sirabetta stared at them from the edge of the clearing; her beautiful features were twisted into an angry frown. “I give you a chance to live and you use it to whisper with one another?” She shook her head. “Veenie, would you like to turn one of them into charcoal? Perhaps the smallest?”

“That's me!” Owen whimpered.

“Okay, okay,” Simon shouted. “We'll come out; don't shoot. Er, whatever.”

Sirabetta snapped her fingers. “Then get over here right now!”

Simon deliberately made his voice whiny. “First, keep that scary guy away!”

Sirabetta rolled her eyes so well, she made Alysha look like an amateur. “Veenie, step back from the bushes.”

“You, too,” Simon shouted.

Sirabetta arched an eyebrow. “Fine, but don't try anything stupid. You can't outrun a bolt of lightning.”

Sirabetta and Veenie backed away across the clearing without taking their eyes off the kids. Simon, Alysha, and Owen walked through the barren shrubs.

“Now, start talking,” Sirabetta said. “Tell me what you know about the
Teacher's Edition of Physics
.”

Simon couldn't help but smile. That was the perfect setup for a heroic line. “Tell you? I'll show you.” Then he pointed at Veenie and Sirabetta while he spoke the gravity formula. Mermon and Sirabetta looked at each other, baffled.

Before they could react, Simon ducked down and grabbed two handfuls of rocks from the forest floor; Owen and Alysha did the same. Simon threw his rocks at Sirabetta's and Veenie's feet, and Alysha and Owen followed his lead. Sirabetta and Veenie jumped back to avoid being hit by the rocks, just as Simon hoped they would.

When they pushed off the ground, they kept floating upward. Mermon waved his arms and legs, yelping, but Sirabetta caught on instantly. “He's made us weightless—they have the Book!”

Simon then spoke a different version of the gravity formula, and the villains were hurled back at a thick tree behind them. Thanks to Simon's words, they were falling toward the tree as if it were the ground.

Mermon slammed into the trunk and was pinned several feet above the dirt floor. He didn't move; the impact had stunned him.

Sirabetta, however, quickly pulled up the other sleeve of her long black coat as she soared back. There were several more formula tattoos on that arm; she immediately found and read a blue formula on her forearm. She stopped in midair, just inches from the tree.

Simon rephrased his formula so the gravitational pull on her became ten times more than normal. Sirabetta thudded into the tree for a second but, with obvious strain, pulled slowly away from the trunk. She was able to resist Simon's formula!

Simon saw this and gulped. “We've got to go!” he yelled to Alysha and Owen. “Brace yourselves; you've got to keep your balance.”

Simon spoke another formula and altered the friction of their feet, giving their toes enough resistance to let them push off and control their speed. “Remember, this is like ice-skating.”

“I don't know how to ice-skate,” Owen said, moaning.

Alysha grabbed his arm. “You're about to learn.” The three pushed off and started sliding through the clearing and back along the path toward Van Silas Way. The Breeze blew again, this time pushing Simon and his friends along and flooding them with energy to help them escape. They needed it.

Simon risked a look backward and saw Sirabetta, still somehow fighting the pull of ten
g
's. She was slowly lowering herself toward the ground.

He focused on keeping his balance as he and his friends zoomed off the curb onto Van Silas Way. He heard an angry scream and several loud explosions ring out from the woods.

Simon saw Alysha start to turn her head. “Don't look back!” he shouted. “Just get to my house!”

The kids slid up Jerome Street, pausing to help Owen each time he slipped and fell. They whooshed to Simon's doorway, and Simon reversed the friction formula so they could walk normally. They rushed inside, and he double-bolted the door behind them.

It was only a temporary fix, though. If Sirabetta and Mermon Veenie figured out where they were, no doors could protect them.

Simon, Alysha, and Owen gasped for breath. “Simon, get your parents,” Alysha said. “The cops'll be more likely to listen to them than to three kids.”

“They're not home,” Simon said. “Besides, what would we say? If I told them some evil, tattooed witch was after us, they'd probably put me on medication.”

“What-do-we-do? We-have-to-call-someone-the-copsor-the-marines-or-something,” Owen whimpered.

Simon shook his head. “Nobody would believe us.” He looked back at the door. “Come on, let's hide out in the basement.”

He led them down the carpeted stairs, taking care to shut the door very quietly behind them. They pushed a wooden bench to the far wall and stood on it so they could peek out through a window. The window was just above ground level and behind a row of bushes; the kids could see as far as the street, but somebody outside wouldn't be likely to notice them.

After a few minutes, Owen groaned. “My feet are starting to hurt.”

“This is stupid,” Alysha said. “She's probably still searching the woods.”

Simon shook his head. “Sirabetta saw us running toward the street; she'll know we left. Just hope she doesn't figure out where I live.”

Alysha suddenly cupped a hand over her mouth to stifle a shriek. There, a few feet away from the window, were two black boots poking out beneath a long, black coat: Sirabetta's. Fortunately, the boots were on the other side of the bushes, pointing away from the window. She was looking out onto the street.

Sirabetta made a gesture, and the kids saw Mermon Veenie coming toward her. Then the two walked back toward Van Silas Way.

Minutes later, they saw Mermon behind the wheel of a shiny red car that he must have parked on Van Silas before going to the woods earlier. He drove slowly, searching out the window. Sirabetta, sitting in the backseat, did the same, but apparently neither noticed three pairs of eyes watching from the basement window. After a moment, the car turned onto the next street.

Simon exhaled with relief. “Now what?”

“Now we get rid of the Book and give up on the woods,” Owen squeaked.

“Are you nuts?” Alysha demanded. “Why?”

“Why? Why?” Owen's voice rose with every word. “Because some crazy tattooed sorceress and her growling wizard pal want to kill us.” He took a breath, his voice hoarse. “Kill as in dead as in corpse as in NO WAY!”

“Stop shouting at me!” Alysha shouted back.

“Easy, guys. Relax,” Simon said.

“Yeah, listen to Simon,” Alysha said. “We're fine. We got away; they don't know who we are or where we live. Plus, we beat them once. We can do it again.”

“
We
didn't do anything!” Owen sputtered. “Simon did it and just barely! I'm sorry, Simon, but this isn't like the books you love or the alien wizard stuff you were joking about in the woods! This is real and it's awful and it's not a game.” He took a deep breath. “One of them threw lightning. Real lightning. I'm scared of thunder, and that's just sound; I mean, how are you supposed to fight lightning? If we get rid of the Book, they won't have any reason to want us.”

Alysha shook her head. “We can't get rid of the Book. What if we give it to them and they come after us for revenge? Or because they don't want to leave any witnesses? Or just because they're bad people? That Book gives us a chance. Without it, we're toast. Burnt toast.”

Owen hopped off the bench and walked to the middle of the basement. “What do you even care? It's not like you're our friend; why are you even here?”

“I could be your friend,” she said. “What's wrong with that?”

“People like you aren't friends with kids like us,” Owen said. “You're popular and cool.” He tugged at his plain T-shirt. “This is me; nothing special. Why would you want to be my friend? And you've had the locker next to Simon for how long? Why are you suddenly his friend now? You followed us because he pulled some trick in the hall and you wanted to know how. Now you know. What's keeping you here?”

Simon raised his eyebrows; he wondered that, too.

Alysha looked away and then turned back angrily. “Fine, I'll tell you. Because you're not like Marcus and Rachelle and all those others. I like that I have a lot of friends and yeah, they can be fun, but sometimes I don't think I belong with them. Owen, I didn't know you before yesterday, and you can be…different sometimes. But you're nice and funny. And Simon…well, we used to have fun, didn't we? You were always more interesting than Marcus and those guys.”

She frowned and went on. “And yeah, seeing Simon using his gravity formula in the hall made me want to follow him. But it's more. You both have a whole thing about you.” She waved her hands in the air. “Maybe it's the woods. Maybe it changes you. Like the Book—it's magic. Real magic. Something unique, something more special than anything I've ever seen or heard of in real life.”

Before Simon or Owen could respond, a sharp tapping on the window made all three of them jump. It was the small brown bird with a horizontal stripe across its belly.

Simon pointed. “It's the spy!” he gasped. “He's been following me practically all week!”

“A bird spy?” Owen looked shocked.

“Let him in and see what he wants,” Alysha said. She stretched up on the bench to unlatch the window.

Owen grabbed her arm. “Let him in? Are you nuts?” At her warning look, he quickly let go but said, “What-if-he-is-a-spy-or-some-kind-of-killer-bird!” He took a breath. “Haven't you seen that Alfred Hitchcock movie
The Birds
?”

The bird looked skyward, shaking its head as if in exasperation.

Before Simon or Owen could say anything, Alysha opened the window. The bird hopped onto the windowsill and, with a quick flurry of its wings, landed on the basement floor.

It chirped loudly at Owen, who ran to the other side of the basement and hid behind one of the many file cabinets that lined the wall. Simon reached over and flicked on a light switch, giving them a good look at the tiny creature.

The bird flapped its wings once, twice. Then its whole body shimmered, shook, and blurred. Simon, Alysha, and Owen (watching with his fingers spread over his eyes) gawked as the tiny bird transformed into a tall, skinny man with short brown hair. He appeared to be in his midtwenties and was dressed in brown pants and a long-sleeved brown-and-gray shirt with a horizontal white stripe in the middle.

The man nodded politely at Simon and Alysha, then turned to Owen and shook his head. “
The Birds
? Stick to watching cartoons, Courageous Cat.”

His voice was smooth and fast, like he was on the verge of breaking into song.

Simon and Alysha stepped down from the bench. “Who are you?” Simon asked, his voice tinged with awe. “And how did you do that?”

“You can call me Flangelo Squicconi, little Newton,” the bird man said. “I've come from the Order of Biology, and you've got some explaining to do.”